The State of the European Socialist Utopia

Please read this article to see why I wrote this blog today.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/05/10/eu-sets-trillion-eurozoneimf-defense-package-protect-euro-disintegration/

It is time for all Americans to look towards Europe for our cue to start lowering our national debt and spend wisely. Europe's great experiment in socialism has shown that it is completely unsustainable. The Euro could easily collapse in value and send the world into more economic downturn periods. I am definitely not jumping for joy at the plight of our European friends, I simply have to say that spending money that isn’t there is utterly ludicrous. Debt in any form is a form of bondage that must be avoided – especially by nations. Of course there are times where deficit spending is necessary, but those instances are only for a war effort or an economic or natural disaster.
The IMF bailout package is a sure sign that Europe in general has some serious issues to deal with. We, under the leadership of this administration (and several Republican and democrat administrations before this) are heading down the same road that Europe is currently on. The dream of universal and free health care is unattainable. The national debt of Greece, Spain, Portugal and many other European nations is staggering and due in large part to socialistic governmental policies. Our national debt is staggering in dollar amounts, but theirs is staggering as a percentage of their GDP’s. That being said of course, that does not excuse our own staggeringly high national debt.
The health care boondoggle that just got rubber-stamped by the Congress will lead to only one end – universal health care and thus more out of control national debt. We have seen from the failed social security mess that government-run “social nets” are always colossal failures. I believe that the reason universal health care is unsustainable is that there is no incentive for citizens to stay healthy if they can go to the hospital any time they want to – for free. Also, the quality of the doctors and nurses in the system degrades because the financial incentive to gain more education or open new practices is removed. If health care is to be improved, than everyone has to be responsible for using it carefully and judiciously. This includes individuals, insurance providers and doctors. I don’t want to go into health care in depth here, but I believe that one of (or perhaps the main) reason for the state Europe is in is due to enormous social programs that are inefficient, counter-productive and unsustainable economically. Socialized medicine is obviously a large part of their social program pie.
We, like our European friends, have to look into the mirror and realize that sacrifices must be made if we are to survive as free nations. A good portion of Asia has set a good example by paying off national debt while we in the west have done the opposite. We must sit down, figure out what is costing so much and cut it. A close look at the readily available national budget shows exactly what the main culprits for our debt are: social security and Medicare/Medicaid. Again, I don’t want to go into these particular topics in depth individually now; but I will at a later date. Along with cutting national debt, we also need to encourage economic investment and growth.
One of the greatest assets we in the United States possess is a motivated and creative entrepreneurial work force. Even with all the gloom and doom stories of greatly undereducated Americans, the fact remains that the smaller hard-working group of afore-mentioned people is what brought America to the forefront of the world economic stage. I definitely think that education must be improved, but those who want an education will attain it no matter the cost. Also, simply being book-smart means nothing without having drive and determination. There are many people all over the world who are well educated, but it means little because they don’t (or can’t due to governmental interference) apply that knowledge for practical use.
If we as a nation would stop thinking that life should be fair and actually play the hands we are dealt, we would all be better off. The governmental pork that is pulling our economy down has to be cut now. If we take the hit in jobs, services and supposed safety of a bloated governmental apparatus now, we will fuel economic and social improvement later. Continuously passing our desire for instant gratification onto succeeding generations must stop here and now. This is precisely why the United States and Europe are so deeply in debt.
Dissolving Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid would cut our deficit drastically but hurt many people unfortunately. Our generation and the following generations must see the big picture and make the sacrifice to cut these programs now. Non-profit religious or non-religious organizations would step in to help those in need during the ensuing hardship for many Americans when these cuts were to be enacted. This is not all that I feel must be done however. After cutting these programs, we must lower taxes, provide growth incentives for business and analyze what regulations can be responsibly removed in order to fuel growth. Europe used to be a great capitalist powerhouse by and large, but has lost its edge due to an entitlement mentality and socialist governmental policies. We too will surely suffer the same fate if we do not contain spending and over-regulation now and encourage more sustainable fiscal policy by our government.